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Landon

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Landon's Birth Story (the long version)

Our last picture as a family of 3!

We woke up around 5am on Wednesday, February 11th
and got ready for the big day. We packed
everything into the car, got Logan up and dressed, and headed to his school to
drop him off. We dropped him right at
7:00, and were cutting it close to be at Northside Hospital by 7:45.

We pulled in, parked and headed to Admissions. After just a few minutes of waiting, we were
taken back to our pre-op room. I got
changed into my hospital gown, filled out tons of paperwork, got the monitors
hooked up and the nurse put my IV in. My
dad showed up a few minutes later and we just hung out until the doctor came in
to do my epidural. I was worried about
this because I jumped pretty badly when they did the epidural for Logan’s
birth. I did much better this time, because
I knew what was coming. They had me sit
on the edge of the bed hunched over a pillow.
I felt the needle go in, which wasn’t too bad, but then he started
putting the medicine in. That was pretty
painful. I cried a good bit, but I think
it was a mixture of pain and emotions of knowing what was about to happen. Then we waited a few minutes and the nurse
wanted to make sure that I was all numb.
She placed an ice pack on my legs and tummy. I couldn't feel the cold on my left side, but
I felt everything on my right. She tried
giving it a few minutes, but I could still feel everything on the right
side. She added more medicine, and after
about 10 minutes, I was finally numb and ready to be wheeled back to the
Operating Room. Right about this time I
got the sudden urge to throw up. This
didn't happen during Logan’s birth, but the nurse told me it was totally
normal. She said it had something to do
with my blood pressure and the medicine.
After getting sick a few times, I felt completely better. Susan and my mom both snuck in my room and
gave me a hug and kiss before I went back.
Dr. Bassil also came by my room and reassured me about the surgery and
what he was going to do with the scar.
He was so nice and made me feel so at ease.

Chris had his scrubs on and followed us back to the OR. They had him wait outside while the got me
prepped. I was a little foggy, but I do
remember the room being very bright and the team sliding me from my bed onto
the operating table. They laid my arms
out to the sides and put the curtain up in front of my face. Chris
came in and sat right by my head. The
shakes from the medicine started to get more intense and I got the feeling that
I was going to throw up again. Just like
a few minutes before, the sickness hit me quickly, I got sick, and was almost
instantly better.

The team then started the operation. I remember looking at Chris and then feeling
lots of tugging and pulling. Dr. Bassil
said that there was a good bit of scar tissue from the previous c-section and
that it would take them a little longer to get through it all. Once they were through, they told me to get
ready for lots of pressure and pulling. It
was pretty rough and quite painful. All
that pain soon went away as I heard the most precious sound…my baby boy
crying. They told Chris to start taking
pictures and I heard the camera snapping away.
They held him up over the curtain so that we could get a look. He was so beautiful! They told Chris to get a picture of
something, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
I remember the doctor saying something about his cord and he would tell
us later. They quickly assessed Landon
and did his Apgar scores. He was an 8
and a 9, which was great. I was so
worried that he would have to be taken to the Transition nursery like Logan did,
so I was so relieved when they said he was perfect. They brought Logan over and Chris laid him
right next to me by my face. I was able
to kiss on him and hold him with my right hand.
He was beautiful and perfect in every way.

The doctor finished closing me up while they took the baby
and Chris to recovery to get him weighed and cleaned up. Dr. Bassil closed me in a different way due to
the fact that I get keloid scars. I
remember started to feel a few pricks as they were finishing and then I
remember them placing this huge piece of white sticky tape across my
stomach. The nurses then wrapped an abdominal
binder tightly around my stomach and placed a few warm blankets over me. Next thing I remember is being rolled down to
recovery and seeing Chris standing in the room holding our new baby and waiting
for us with a huge smile on his face.

Once in recovery, they gave Landon to me where we went ahead
and breastfed for the first time. He
latched right away and even ate from both sides. I was so happy! Several nurses came in to check different
things and I remember they had to start mashing on my tummy. It hurt pretty badly.

Dr. Bassil came in a little later to check on us and he also
wanted to explain the importance of the picture of the cord he had Chris
take. He began by saying that all babies
are miracles, but we had a double miracle.
He explained there was a large knot in the cord, which we could clearly
see in the picture. Had the large knot
tightened while he was still in the womb, we wouldn’t be holding Landon right
now, and the outcome would have been devastating. I had never heard of this, so I started
asking questions. He explained that it
probably happened around 15-16 weeks. When
I asked about seeing this on the ultrasounds, he explained that there’s not
really a way to see the entire cord on ultrasound and that ultrasound is 2D, so
this would have been missed on ultrasound.
I immediately began to think of how different this pregnancy could have
been and it made me stop and thank God for our precious miracle.

After feeding Landon in the recovery room, the nurse checked
his blood sugar and even after nursing it was still too low. The informed us that they would need to take
him upstairs to the nursery for two hours to have some formula and run the
blood sugar test two more times. We
kissed Landon and told him we would see him soon. While having him taken away killed me, I knew
that he would be okay and I was still so thankful that his breathing was
okay. I’m sure the drugs helped keep me
calm, too.

After about another hour, they finally wheeled us up to our
private room, Room 678. We got settled
and our families came trickling in to see us.
Landon’s blood sugar was good, so he joined us in the room not too long
after we got there. Mimi and Pop had
gone to pick up Logan from school, so he could come to the hospital to meet his
little brother. As soon as he walked in
to the room, I began to cry. I missed
him so much and watching him meet his brother was so beautiful. He immediately wanted to hold him. The nurse came in at the exact same time and
was trying to tell me some things about recovery. I really couldn’t pay attention because I was
trying to watch Logan and Landon meeting for the first time.

The pain was pretty bad the first day and the mashing on my
tummy didn’t help things. The nurses
came in about midnight and told me it was time to get up and use the
bathroom. As much as it hurt, I knew the
sooner I got up and walking the better I would be. The next morning, they removed my IV, my
epidural, and the worst was that huge white tape across my stomach. The nurse didn’t really warn me, she just
pulled and ripped it off like a humongous Band-Aid. It hurt so much, I actually cried. When I looked down, I realized she also
ripped a piece of skin off on my left side.
They started me on Motrin and Morphine since the epidural was
removed. Luckily that helped the pain
and kept it around a 3 or 4 on the pain scale.
Seeing Logan and Landon and being able to kiss both of my babies really
helped to not focus on the pain.

Our hospital stay was great.
We couldn’t have asked for a better experience. The nurses were all so great, my care was exceptional,
and Landon was cared for perfectly. The
next couple of days were spent snuggling Landon, resting (a little) and
establishing breastfeeding. Landon was a
champion feeder right away, just like his brother. We were able to go home Saturday afternoon,
which happened to be Valentine’s Day. I’m
pretty sure I had the sweetest Valentine of them all!